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The Telecom Digest for June 30, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 158 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
France bids au revoir to the Minitel (John Levine)
Re: France bids au revoir to the Minitel (John Levine)
Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar (Monty Solomon)

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Date: 28 Jun 2012 18:07:35 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: France bids au revoir to the Minitel
Message-ID: <20120628180735.98528.qmail@joyce.lan>

You know all that stuff that you thought people invented on the
Internet, like online plane tickets or romantic chat?  Surprise!  It
was invented in France in the 1980s on the Minitel, simple text
terminals that were originally supposed to be (obTelecom:) an
electronic phone book.

But hardly anyone uses it any more, so it shuts down for good this weekend.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/world/europe/after-3-decades-in-france-minitels-days-are-numbered.html

R's,
John

***** Moderator's Note *****

The article says that farmers are reluctant to change to
Internet-based machines, so I'm curious why they don't simply turn it
into a BBS-type system. They've already got the terminals: why not
just shrink Minitel to the agricultural market and keep it running?

Bill Horne
Moderator




Date: 29 Jun 2012 17:34:22 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re:  France bids au revoir to the Minitel
Message-ID: <20120629173422.69118.qmail@joyce.lan>

>The article says that farmers are reluctant to change to
>Internet-based machines, so I'm curious why they don't simply turn it
>into a BBS-type system. They've already got the terminals: why not
>just shrink Minitel to the agricultural market and keep it running?

It's a 30 year old system with custom terminals, its own dedicated
short phone numbers, and probably mainframes on the back end.  The
farmers will complain (a farmer who's not complaining is a farmer
who's dead) but they'll figure something out.  I do suspect there
is a niche here for ruggedized netbooks or tablet computers that
will work reliably in the barn when covered with mud and dust.

R's,
John




Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:19:02 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar
Message-ID: <p062408a8cc125cfa1944@[10.0.1.6]>

Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar

by Martin C. Libicki
RAND

The protection of cyberspace, the information medium, has become a 
vital national interest because of its importance both to the economy 
and to military power. An attacker may tamper with networks to steal 
information for the money or to disrupt operations. Future wars are 
likely to be carried out, in part or perhaps entirely, in cyberspace. 
It might therefore seem obvious that maneuvering in cyberspace is 
like maneuvering in other media, but nothing would be more 
misleading. Cyberspace has its own laws; for instance, it is easy to 
hide identities and difficult to predict or even understand battle 
damage, and attacks deplete themselves quickly. Cyberwar is nothing 
so much as the manipulation of ambiguity. The author explores these 
topics in detail and uses the results to address such issues as the 
pros and cons of counterattack, the value of deterrence and 
vigilance, and other actions the United States and the U.S. Air Force 
can take to protect itself in the face of deliberate cyberattack.

...

Libicki, Martin C.. Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar. Santa Monica, CA: 
RAND Corporation, 2009.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG877
. 
Also available in print form.






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